This week learn about Style and Shorthand in music.
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There is more to music than pitch and rhythm, and your page will be filled with extra information about how to play the music. One important aspect is the volume or dynamics of the piece. Abbreviations beneath the staff indicate that the music should be played quietly, or piano; loudly, or forte; or any variation thereof. A crescendo marking indicates that the music should gradually get louder, while a decrescendo marking indicates the opposite. The speed, or tempo, of the music is often specified by a number of beats per minute at the top of the page, which you can use to set a metronome. The piece may require the tempo to increase (accelerando) or decrease (ritardando) at certain points. The tempo and style of the piece can also be described by a short note in Italian at the start of the piece. The style may be reinforced by the presence of accents over certain notes, indicating how the note should be attacked. Other stylistic markings include the fermata, which indicates that a note should be prolonged, and the caesura, which indicates that the music should pause for dramatic effect. Musical phrases may also include ornaments, like trills, turns, glissandos, and grace notes, in addition to the main melody. There are many more bits of similar musical notation, including instrument-specific markings like pedal markings for piano and some mallet percussion instruments, or breath marks for wind instruments. Using a music dictionary is a good way to learn about notation you may not be familiar with yet.
Clearly music notation can get pretty complicated, so it’s no wonder composers utilize shorthand whenever possible. For example, instead of writing out several measures of whole rests, the composer may use a multimeasure rest, with the total number of silent measures written above the bar. To avoid rewriting identical lines of music, the composer may use repeat signs. If only the end repeat sign is present, play until you reach the repeat sign, then repeat the piece from the beginning, ignoring the repeat sign on the second pass. If both repeat signs are present, play until you reach the end repeat, then repeat the piece from the begin repeat sign, again ignoring the repeat signs on the second pass. A piece with repeat signs may also have multiple endings so that a different phrase is played at the end of the first, second, and third time through the piece. The roadmap of a piece may also be written out in Italian. Da capo, abbreviated D.C., means to return to the beginning of the piece, and dal segno, abbreviated D.S. means to return to the sign. These directions are commonly followed by either “al fine” meaning to play until the end of the piece or the word “fine”, or “al coda” meaning to play until you see the first coda symbol (usually accompanied by “to coda” or “al coda”) and then skip to the other coda symbol (often accompanied by “Coda”). So, for example, D.S. al Coda means to return to the sign, play until you reach the coda symbol, then skip to the coda.
We hope this series has given you some insight into the complex but incredibly rewarding practice of reading music.